160 



COLOKADO. 



and had sold themselves to the Northern com- 

 bination, including the Union Pacific, the Kan- 

 sas Pacific, and the Colorado Central. Thus 

 the Santa Fe was cut out of Denver completely. 

 The Kio Grande would do nothing to accommo- 

 date them. This was a disagreeable circum- 

 stance, and it was agreed that it must be reme- 

 died. The most expeditious way in which to 

 accomplish this end was to build a road from 

 Pueblo to Denver. The road was incorporated 

 and the engineers sent out. They located their 

 line, and the money was at once subscribed to 

 construct it. The Eio Grande people were 

 quick to see that such a line as this would 

 ruin them, and hence they agreed to lease the 

 constructed portion of their road to the Santa 

 Fe Company. This lease was effected on the 

 19th day of last October. The Eio Grande 

 people took their men out of the canon, but 

 said that they desired to have the case go for- 

 ward in the courts as to the right of way. The 

 money was paid over for running stock and 

 implements, and the lease sealed and signed for 

 thirty years. 



Soon Leadville began to be a most important 

 point. Emigration poured in and business im- 

 proved immensely. It was then that the Kio 

 Grande people began to wish that they had 

 their road back. They had no other reason, 

 and their wishes in the matter were the hot- 

 bed out of which have been sprung any num- 

 ber of schemes. As soon as it was determined 

 to make this effort there was a great gathering 

 at Denver. Very soon after a suit was brought 

 in El Paso County, in the name of the people, 

 requiring the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F6 

 Company to show cause why it operated roads 

 in Colorado. The case was appealed to the 

 Supreme Court of the State. Subsequently 

 another bill was brought, in Costilla County, 

 requiring that the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa 

 Fe Company should be enjoined from operat- 

 ing railroads in Colorado. Judge Bowen 

 granted the writ, and it was served, and the 

 Bio Grande people took possession by force of 

 arms, killing three men in doing so, and wound- 

 ing several. The former company then ap- 

 plied to the TJ. S. District Court for a writ of 

 restriction against the Denver and Rio Grande 

 Company for a return of the property. Judge 

 Hallett, with Mr. Justice Miller concurring, 

 .said : 



Without going into discussion whether firearms 

 were used, whether any one was killed during the 

 controversy, whether violence was vised, it may be 

 assumed, 1 think, upon all that is stated upon both 

 sides here, that this road was not peaceably surren- 

 dered by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F6 Com- 

 pany to the Eio Grande Company ; that some force 

 was used under this writ to obtain possession; and, 

 if that be true, the result is the same whether the force 

 was much or little. The fact remains that, under a 

 writ which did not authorize any such proceeding, 

 this company obtained possession of this property; 

 and whether the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa F6 

 Company quietly yielded to the force of the writ as 

 it was interpreted to them, and gave up under pro- 

 test, or after some show of force was made, or after 



force was actually used, the result is the same in either 

 case the possession of the property was unlawfully 

 obtained. It only remains to say upon all that, if 

 these things are true, that process of the Court was 

 used in some way to obtain possession of this proper- 

 ty, and unlawfully used. And if so, it appears to me 

 that, before any other proceeding is taken in the cause, 

 the parties are entitled to be restored to the possession 

 in which they were before the writ was issued ; that 

 is to say, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Com- 

 pany is entitled to have this property restored to them. 



The controversy continued to rage in the 

 courts and out of them with increased bitter- 

 ness, until it was finally terminated by the 

 action of the U. S. District Court in placing 

 the Eio Grande road in the hands of a receiver. 



Meanwhile the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa 

 Fe Company proceeded with the construction 

 of the road through the Grand Canon, which 

 was a stupendous achievement in railroad en- 

 gineering. The Grand Canon of the Arkansas 

 is now known to be eleven miles in length, 

 and the gorge a mile and a half, being the 

 narrow winding way of that river through a 

 converse palisade of granite rock, rising in 

 many places to the height of 2,500 feet. This 

 rock-bound river pathway became known to 

 the Spanish missionaries as early as the year 

 1642. From that time it was not known that 

 any animal life had ever passed through it suc- 

 cessfully until the summer of 1870. The first 

 train passed over the road on May 7th, and 

 the event is thus described by the Denver 

 paper : 



On reaching the canon the engine was placed in the 

 rear, so as to give a better view to the tourists. The 

 approach to the canon is gradual. The distant hills 

 draw nearer, and the valley of the Arkansas becomes 

 narrower and narrower until the river is shut in close- 

 ly on both sides by high mountains, sloping gently 

 away, and covered with verdure. Then the slope of 

 the mountains becomes more perpendicular, and the 

 hills become higher, until suddenly the river is com- 

 pletely shut in oy mountains with mighty tops. The 

 roar and rattle of the train grows louder, and echoes 

 up and down. The train is fairly in the cafion. It 

 moves slowly. The mountain walls are of a dizzy 

 height, and so close together that, looking ahead, they 

 appear simply to form a crevice a huge, awful crev- 

 ice througn which the miserable little train was tim- 

 idly crawling. The curves of the canon are superb. 

 They constitute the finishing touch to its grandeur, 

 and fill the mind with a fuller appreciation of this 

 great miracle of nature. But the Koyal Gorge ! Ima- 

 gine two almost perfectly perpendicular walls rising 

 to a height of 2,200 feet, and only thirty feet apart, 

 those walls presenting jagged and irregular masses 

 of rock that on the railroad side hang over the train, 

 all creviced and ready to fall in thousands of tons. 

 The road-bed is cut out of the solid rock, and masses 

 of this hang over it, stretching out a hundred feet. 

 One can not look to the top ot this wall on account 

 of these projecting, irregular bluffs ; but the height to 

 the top, even as measured by the eye, disturbs the 

 faculties and brings on vertigo. The cooped-up Ar- 

 kansas rushes madly by, a narrow thread, made still 

 more so by the rocks thrown into it. There is not 

 room to step from the train without pitching into the 

 river. Not a word is uttered. The engineer whistles 

 occasionally, and timid folks look for the rocks to fall. 

 It is really a strain on the mind to take it in, and this 

 can be only feebly done on a single trip. Two thou- 

 sand feet above you are the tops of the mountain walls. 

 You are imprisoned in a crack thirty feet wide, and 



